Simulated laser shooting system

ABSTRACT

The invention provides a simulated laser shooting system that includes a laser gun, HD monitor, video camera, collection card, master computer and sound apparatus. The system&#39;s features are in that it has reality scene, is both dynamic and static, and is rich and colorful. Players can fight an on-line battle by the system.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Applicants claim priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of Chinese ApplicationNo. 99 1 25554.2 filed Dec. 3, 1999. Applicants also claim priorityunder 35 U.S.C. §120 of PCT/CN99/00216 filed Dec. 23, 1999. Theinternational application under PCT article 21(2) was not published inEnglish.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention provides a simulated laser shooting system that belongs togames and entertainment field.

BACKGROUND ART

At present, the simulated laser shooting system usually consists oflaser gun and target, and usually the target is a static picture, whosecontents are simplistic, uninteresting and lack of attraction.

The invention is used for providing a dynamic picture displaying, andthe picture can be updated automatically after the target in theoriginal picture was shot.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The said new simulated laser shooting system is completed according tothe following technical schemes:

A kind of simulated laser shooting system includes a laser gun, HDmonitor, video camera, collection card, master computer and soundapparatus. And the master computer has the soft system for measuringlaser beam point and soft system for master control. The master computerwill control the sound apparatus and control the HD monitor by the softsystem for master control. The soft system for measuring laser beampoint is composed by video camera, collection card and laser spotsmeasuring software system, the said video camera is placed at the placewhere the camera can shoot the high-definition pictures, its outlet mustbe connected with the inlet of collection card, the outlet of collectioncard must be connected with the soft system for measuring laser beampoint in the master computer, and soft system for measuring laser beampoint must be connected with the soft system for master control, thesoft system for master control can perform the following steps:

firstly, the new animation frame must be generated when the target isnot shot, and then collect the picture signals processed by the softsystem for measuring laser beam point. Detecting whether there are laserbeam points in the picture (yes/no), if no, return to the new step ofthe animation frame when the target is not shot. If yes, then detectwhether the laser beam point has shot the target (yes/no), if no, thenreturn to the new step of the animation frame when the target is notshot and score the game. If yes, then switch to new animation when thetarget is shot and score the game. As the improvement of this invention,you can connect this master computer with the other simulated lasershooting systems by Internet.

The working principle of this system is shown as followings:

The HD monitor can display the pictures according to the input signalscontrolled by the soft system for the master control, at the same time,the sound apparatus will play the sound controlled by the mastercomputer, the video camera can shoot the optical signals displayed bythe HD monitor and converted into electric signals and transmitted thissignals to the collection card, the collection card will convert thecollected electric signals into digital signals stored by frames andthen transferred to master computer, this signals can be processed bythe soft system for measuring laser beam point in the master computer,then the input signals can be converted into the signals which can beidentified, processed and detected by the soft system for mastercontrol. The soft system for master control will operate according tothe preset program and detect whether there are laser beam points in thepicture or whether there are target shot by the laser beam points andthen determine the displayed picture and score of the game on the HDmonitor.

Because this technical scheme can display dynamic pictures, play thesound and automatically update the pictures after the targets were shot.So the system's features are in that it has reality and vivid scene,clear and natural, if connected with the Internet, the players can fightan on-line battle and rank the order of the game.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Combined with the attached figures and embodiments, we make furtherdescription about the invention.

FIG. 1 is the system figure of this invention.

FIG. 2 is the program flow chart of the soft system of master control.

In this embodiment, the Internet system structure of the simulated lasershooting system is provided, it includes a laser gun (not shown in thisfigure), HD monitor 1, video camera 7, collection card 8, mastercomputer 2 and sound apparatus 6. And the master computer 2 has the softsystem for measuring laser beam point 9 and soft system for mastercontrol 4. The master computer 2 will control the sound apparatus 6 andcontrol the HD monitor 1 by the soft system for master control 4. Thesoft system for measuring laser beam point is composed by video camera7, collection card 8 and laser spots measuring software system 9, thesaid video camera 7 is placed at the place where the camera can shootthe high-definition pictures, its outlet must be connected with theinlet of collection card 8, the outlet of collection card 8 must beconnected with the soft system for measuring laser beam point 9 in themaster computer 2, and soft system for measuring laser beam point 9 mustbe connected with the soft system for master control 4, the mastercomputer 2 can be connected with the Internet 4 by the Internetapparatus 3, the Internet 4 can be connected with the other simulatedlaser shooting system 5.

In this embodiment, the HD monitor 1 is used for display the picturescreated by the computer, at the same time, these pictures are used forthe target of the laser gun. The laser gun 2 is used for shooting thelaser to the HD monitor 1, the soft system for measuring laser beampoint is used for measuring the coordinates of the laser beam points onthe screen, and the video camera 7 is used to convert the opticalsignals from the pictures of the screen and laser beam points intoelectric signals, the collection card 8 is used to convert the electricsignals from the video camera into digital signals stored by frame anddetermine the grey values of every pixels in one picture. The softsystem for measuring the laser beam points 9 is used to find the pointwith the maximum grey value and determine whether it is the laser beampoint (yes/no), if yes, this system will calculate the coordinates inthe screen, the soft system of master control 4 is used to create thedynamic pictures and control the playing of the sound apparatus, andcompare the coordinates of the laser beam points from the soft systemfor measuring the laser beam points with the coordinates of the target,detecting whether the target is shot (yes/no), if yes, then the systemwill switch to the dynamic pictures such as fell over of the animal,fire or explosion of aircrafts, warships and so on. At the same time,the scoring of the game and ranking the order can be performed and theplayers can fight an on-line battle by controlling the Internetapparatus. The sound apparatus 5 is controlled by the soft system formaster control to play the sound such as gunshots, sounds of eachanimals, buzz of the aircrafts etc, the Internet apparatus 3 is used forconnecting many a simulated laser shooting systems to let the playerscan fight an on-line battle.

The working principle of the soft system for measuring the laser beampoints is shown as following:

Shooting the figures and laser beam points on the screen with the videocamera, because the brightness of the laser beam points are more greaterthan the other picture, when the iris of the video camera is zoomed inenough, then the pictures collected by the video camera are only thosepictures with the laser beam points which grey values are larger than aconstant value a (0<a<256, usually a=230), and the grey values of theother points are lesser than a, thus the pixel of the laser beam pointcan be distinguished from the other points according to the detecting ofthe grey values by the soft system for measuring the laser beam point,at this time, the coordination of the pixel of the laser beam point atthe frame collected by the collection card can be obtained, and then thecoordinate of this laser beam point on the screen can be calculated byconversion.

In the soft system for measuring the laser beam point, we can obtain thegrey values of each pixel of current frame by calling the functions inthe collection card, and then find the point with the maximum grey valueby cyclic diagnosis algorithm to determine whether the grey value ismore than one constant value a (for example 230) (yes/no), if yes, thenindicate that the pixel related with this maximum grey value is thepixel of laser beam point, not the projection of the other beam on thescreen (because the grey value of other pixel related with the otherbeams on the screen can't be more than the constant value a). At thistime you can simultaneously obtain the coordinate of this pixel on thepicture shot by video camera, and gain the coordinate on the screen bythe other conversion. The conversion factor is obtained by thecalibration of the soft system for measuring the laser beam point beforeusing it, when the calibration is completed, and the location of thevideo camera is unchanged, then the conversion factor will not changed,and the conversion factor may not be calibrated when the soft system formeasuring the laser beam point is used in the further.

The principle of the coordinate conversion is as followings:

The left corner is selected as the zero-point of the screen coordinatesystem, the positive direction of X axial is right and Y axial is down.We can project two laser beam points A(x1, y1), B(x2, y2) on the screen(x1, y1, x2, y2 are the prescribed screen coordinate), and let thex1≠x2, y1≠y2. The pixel coordinate value (x1,y1) on the picture shot byvideo camera of point A can be calculated by comparing the grey values(the coordinate system of the picture shot by video camera selects theleft corner as the zero-point and the positive direction of X axial isright and Y axial is down. Just as the same we can obtain the pixelcoordinate (x2, y2) of the B in the picture of video camera, and thecoordinate value (H,K) in the screen coordinate system of the coordinatezero-point of the shot picture by the video camera by principle ofgeometrical conversion. Then the coordinate value (x, y) in the screencoordinate system can be calculated with the formula x=X+H, y=Y+K.

The soft system for the master control will perform the flow chart shownin FIG. 2:

The new animation frame can be created firstly when the target is notshot, and then collect the figure signals processed by the soft systemfor measuring the laser beam point, determine whether there are laserbeam points in the figure (yes/no), if no, then return to the newanimation frame when the above created targets are not shot, if yes,then determine whether the target has been shot by the laser, if no,return to the new animation frame again when the above created targetsare not shot and score the game, if yes, then switch to the newanimation frame when the targets are shot and score the game.

It should be noted that under the preconditions of not losing contactwith reality, the ordinary technician can modify or remodel thiselectronic device, all the relevant modifications or remodels areconsidered under the protection scope of this invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A simulated laser shooting system which includesa laser gun and a target, said simulated laser shooting systemcomprising: a) a monitor for showing the target; b) a video camera; c) acollecting card wherein an outlet of said video camera is incommunication with an inlet of said collecting card; d) a soundapparatus; and e) a master computer including: i) a software system formeasuring a laser beam point wherein said software system controls saidcollecting card and said video camera and is in communication with saidoutput of said collecting card; and ii) a software system for a mastercontrol for controlling said sound apparatus and said monitor; whereinsaid video camera is disposed in a place where said camera can shootsaid high definition pictures and wherein said software system formaster control can perform the following steps: generating a newanimation frame when the target is not shot; collecting a plurality ofpicture signals processed by said software system for measuring saidlaser beam point; detecting whether there are laser beam points in saidpicture; returning to a new animation frame if said laser beam is notpointing at said picture; detecting whether said laser beam point hasshot the target; returning to said step of generating to a new animationframe if the target is not shot; scoring said game if the target is notshot; switching to a new animation target if the target is shot; andscoring said game when the target is shot.
 2. A feature of the simulatedlaser shooting system of claim 1, wherein said master computer can beconnected with other simulated laser shooting systems by the Internet.